UK 40k GT Heat 2 - Report: Game 1

I've been looking forward to the GT Heats for a while, but also felt a little nervous. I really felt that that I should qualify for the finale. I had decided what to take a few weeks ago, but I didn't really want to divulge anything such was my desperation.

My list was:

Chaos Lord (Warlord):
-Terminator Armour
-Mark of Khorne
-Black Mace

Chaos Lord:
-Terminator Armour
-Mark of Khorne
-Axe of Blind Fury

2x 8 Chaos Marines:
-7 free close combat weapons
-Meltagun
-Melta Bombs
-Mark of Khorne

15 Cultists:
-2 Autoguns

2x 4 Spawn:
-Mark of Nurgle

Heldrake:
-Baleflamer

2x Land Raiders
-Dirge Casters

Aegis Defence Line

My first game was a tricky start. My opponent was running a Space Wolves list rammed with Melta. He had a rune priest on a bike in a bike squadron with a Multi-Melta. 2 Land Speeders with Multi-Melta each and another identical one by itself. 3 squads of Grey Hunters with Melta and plasma, one of which had a drop pod. Then 3 packs of Long Fangs, plus 2 squads of Wolf Scouts with Melta Bombs.

Totally ripped from the Brighton Warlords Facebook Page

I won the roll off for first turn and gave it to him, this is because it was crusade with 5 objectives and hammer and anvil, I wanted the jump on the objectives. He deploys right on the line to get the range and prevent me from coming forward with the Raiders, with a squad of Grey Hunters and Long Fangs hanging back onto his home objective. We each had a home objective, but I'd stacked the middle so I could make the jump. I shoved my Land Raiders up to the front of my aegis ready for the drop pod, with the spawn behind each.

He then comes for me. The drop pod comes down and misses the land raider, but then I feel he makes a mistake by turboing his speeders a little. This is because I jump out of the Khorne lord, and kill 6 Grey Hunters. The spawn then go after the speeders, but only get into and kill the individual courtesy of failing a 5" charge with fleet.

The bikes then push up a bit more and the Khorne lord takes a couple of hits knocking him down to one wound. One squad of Wolf Scouts come on next to the Spawn but only wound one.

All of my reserves then come on, the Heldrake fries 5 bikers including the Multi-Melta leaving just the Rune Priest on a single wound and a Biker left who are then shot by Lascannons from the Land Raider that the Khorne Lord jumps into. The Spawn double back a little, kill all of the Scouts and then consolidate back into cover. The Cultists then leg it in an attempt to avoid being run off the board.

The remaining scouts then come on behind the Cultists, who take a few casualties, and then run off the board. He shoots at the Heldrake a bit but not much really happens.

My turn 4 is really where I start to feel comfortable if I'm honest. My Warlord hops out and kills all of the remaining Scouts, with the Marines getting ready to move on the forward objective. The other Chaos Lord gets out, a Land Speeder is then taken out by Lascannon fire before he bops the other one. The Spawn then make a break and run behind a piece of terrain, with only 5 Missiles and some Bolters to shift them before I contest his objective. By this point the Heldrake's gone crazy. The weakened Grey Hunter squad went down to vector strike turn 3 before a turn 3 flamer and a turn 4 vector removed the second squad of Grey Hunters pushing on the middle. The following Flamer wiping an entire squad of Long Fangs from the board. The second Land Raider also disposes of the Drop Pod. Now all he has left are 2 packs of Long Fangs and a squad of Grey Hunters, and it's night fighting next turn.

The Spawn live, and plough into his Grey Hunters to contest their objective, but not before the Heldrake burns many of them to a crisp. Turn 6 they break through as the Heldrake mops up the back squad of Missiles. The Spawn then patter around to his remaining Long Fangs, and at the end of turn 7 he only has a single Long Fang remaining. So I score 30pts. 25 for winning the primary, 1 for First Blood, 2 for Slay the Warlord and 2 for Linebreaker. A solid start.